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Hello,
Glad I found this site. I am having a 4 ton 13 seer goodman electric heat and a/c installed tomorrow. The installation includes a new line set, disconnect, and the addtion of one return. I am paying $x,000 for this. Never heard of Goodman until this year and have been comparing them to the others, to me it looks like a good sturdy frame especially compared to the Lennox. I have been doing a little reading on the parts and it appears alot of the companies use the same parts. Anyway, I have a 1800 sq. foot home, built in 1984, it has lot's of windows and I am in Fort Worth, Texas. I am just wondering first off if I am getting a good deal price wise and if this is the right size system for the house. My current system is 21 year old 3 ton. Thanks for the help in advance.

Well,
I am not sure. I do know what I have had a $500 heating bill in the winter. My current unit is a Sun Dial that does not have a heat pump. One contractor told me I needed a 3.5 ton and the other actually took measurements and told me that I need a 4 ton. Oh yeah, I live in a two story home.

Guess it might help to tell you that only two people live here and we do not have any electricity that runs such as a swimming pool. I have electricity bills in the winter hit 500 and summer can go as low as $120. I spend $2700 on electricity last year.

If they did a load calc accuratly you should be ok with the size of the system. If the contractor that called for a 3.5 ton system was using a different brand, the "3.5 ton" system he proposed may actually have similar capacity to the Goodman "4 ton" system you are purchasing. It all depends on the equipment matchups from one manufacturer to the next, and how thier equipment performs in our summer design conditions, wich are substantially more challenging than the conditions used for the ARI ratings. As long as the contractor knows how to apply the equipment, it is fine.

Nobody can tell for sure over the internet if your supply ductwork is ok, but I would find it highly suspicious if they are not making any changes.
If your ductwork is the old gray vinal, all of it that is accessable needs to be replaced.
If your duct system is metal, I can virtually guarantee you that it is leaking an unacceptable amount of supply air. The vast majority of residential metal duct systems I have seen in the DFW area leak very badly. Usually they were never designed very well, or are inadiquate for new equipment, especially when larger equipment is being installed.

Assuming you get a quality installation, you will enjoy the drasticly lower heating bills you get with your new heat pump.
Your old electric resistance heating furnace is a close 2nd to the most expensive form of heat there is. It is just slightly less expensive than actually burning money for the BTU content.

I live in West Fort Worth. Also, the duct work is the flex duct which will need to be replaced eventually. I am going to do that myself because I only got approved for 5,000. The guy told me that he will show me how to replace it and even help me for shiner bock. The guy is actually looking for a home in my neighborhood. The company is Stark Air. They are a seemingly good company which has good ratings by the BBB. I am going to replace it with R8. I have been told by several contractors that my electric bill should be cut by 40 to 50 percent.

Heh, at least get them to design the duct system for you rather than just sticking the same size ducts back in the way they were origonally installed.
I can probably guess who the origonal installation company was when the house was built, and I can confidently tell you that if you go back with the same size ductwork routed the same way, the system will not perform anywhere near its peak. The origonal ductwork was probably barely adiquate for the origonal 3 ton system, those Sun Dial electric furnaces had stronger blowers than a lot of the equipment today though.

Among contractors of thier size, you picked one of the better ones that service your area, or at least have been in the past, they sure have perty trucks.

Originally posted by jcswaim Thank you for your advise. As for the duct work, what he suggests is to add some more returns and keep the rest the same. They do suggest upgrading to R8. Does that make sense?

No way for me to know for sure without looking at the job(we don't service your area), but generally, it doesn't make sense to make a jump in capacity, especially upgrading to a heat pump, without having to make significant changes to the sizing of the supply ducts.

Not that it doesn't happen many times every day, but it almost always ends up being somewhat less than ideal, wich is about normal for this area.